Chain Reaction
by Anomay
Summary: It all starts with a misunderstanding … one tragedy leads to another, and the whole cast are doomed to hell. ~sob sob~


Chain Reaction  
By Anomay 

Summary: It all starts with a misunderstanding one tragedy leads to another, and the whole cast are doomed to hell. ~sob sob~ 

Author note: This is a parody. Read at your own risk. A cookie for anyone able to figure out what the point of this thing is. ^_~ Beware of melodrama and angst. Special thanks go to Anahita for being my beta again!

  
*~*~*

"Leave me alone." Eiri spat as he kept his gaze to the ceiling, avoiding Shuichi's pleading look and the tears in his eyes. Like always, Eiri's words were final. It meant their talk was over.

Things were different with this fight, however. Shuichi hadn't whined or cried like he always did when Eiri ordered him to leave. He stared at some imaginary dust on the floor, looking like a lonely puppy that waited at the window for its owner to return home.

"You have never loved me before, have you?" said his hollow voice. "I'm just a toy to you - someone to use and throw away when you're done with me. I'll leave you alone all right, Yuki. You can drown in your old memories of Kitazawa for as long as you want."

Without a backward glance, Shuichi headed towards the door, ambling, as if he was saying goodbye to the apartment.

Eiri wanted to shout; he wanted to deny that he had thought about Sensei ever since the two of them got together. But Shuichi was right; Kitazawa was like a ghost that haunted their relationship. Eiri had nothing to say that would make Shuichi feel better.

Defeated, Eiri watched the closed door in silence. He went back to their - no, his bedroom to sleep.

When he was sleeping, he did not have to think. Or remember. Or regret.

*~*~*

Eiri did not know how long he had slept for before he was awakened by the doorbell. Grudgingly, he put on a pair of pants and answered the door. 

It was Seguchi Tohma.

"What do you want?" Eiri roared. He was never very forgiving of those people who disturbed his sleep.

"Please calm down, Eiri-san. I have something that I have to tell you. Please let me in." said Tohma solemnly as he placed a velvet-gloved hand on Eiri's shoulder.

"What the fuck? Spill whatever you want to tell me, and leave my apartment at once!" 

Tohma gave him a pained look. Breathing in deeply, he uttered, "I asked for the job myself, so I should skip the small talk and deliver the bad news to you now. Shindo-san has passed away."

Eiri blinked. Dead? Impossible, he just saw Shuichi several hours ago! If it was a joke, it wasn't funny at all.

However, Tohma would never joke about something as serious as death.

"What happened?" Eiri could barely manage to ask in a hoarse voice.

"Shindo-san had jumped off this building four hours ago, presumably right after he left your apartment, because there are witnesses who said his last words were -" Tohma closed his eyes briefly before continuing, "- Yuki, I will love you forever."

Eiri looked behind Tohma. There it was, a window that was open in the corridor, large enough for a small man to climb out. He pushed Tohma aside, causing his friend to fall flat on the floor.

"Do not look, Eiri-san! I beg you, please do not look!"

Eiri didn't listen. Dragging his body over to the window, he forced himself to look at the pavement some 30 stories below. He didn't see Shuichi's body. All he saw was a large puddle of blood, and a human shape marked by white chalk. Lots of people gathered around the scene, and the police was having a hard time of keeping the media away.

Something snapped in Eiri's mind.

He glanced around urgently, as if he was looking for something precious. Not finding what he wanted to see, he banged his head at the window's frame. Eiri didn't feel any pain as the glass shattered. Blood started to flow freely from the wound on his forehead, but that didn't seem to bother him. 

He started to laugh manically. 

"Tohma, he won't move. He won't answer me. Have I killed him? Have I? Is Sensei playing a game with me? Why? If he wants ten dollars, I can give it to him. Shuichi, where are you? You said you'd make him go away! No! Come back! I won't cry anymore no, come back! Please don't leave me, Baby!"

"Eiri-san, calm down please calm down it's okay to cry " Tohma walked over to the hysterical man and tried to console him by hugging him from behind, desperately trying to keep him from hurting himself anymore, but he knew that it was over. Without the pink haired boy, Eiri had nobody able to shield him from those demons that tore away at his tortured soul.

Eiri shoved Tohma's hands away. "No, you leave me alone. You all left me alone " He began to cry hysterically, tears and blood staining his once handsome face that looked so blank and lifeless.

And then he stopped suddenly. Smiling, Eiri pushed the window wide open and caressed the window frame with his blood-soaked right hand. "I love you too, Shuichi. I have always loved you." He said, even though the person to whom those words were meant for would never hear them. It didn't matter, he didn't care if he had to travel all the way to hell, Eiri was determined to find his beloved and tell him those words that the boy so desperately wanted to hear. Suddenly, he threw himself out of the window.

"Eiri-san!!!!" Screaming in horror, Tohma tried to catch Eiri. But all he caught was air. Grasping the emptiness in his hands, Tohma let out a pained sob that could be heard from the building across the street.

*~*~*

Hiro couldn't believe it when he heard that his best friend had committed suicide. Shuichi, who was full of energy and laugher, had killed himself? It was unthinkable. It was impossible! However, hearing about the death of Yuki Eiri on every television station had made him face the brutal reality. Shuichi was gone. His Shuichi ...

The whole N-G building was filled with an air of sadness that day. Shuichi was very well liked in the company. He was always so happy, like a ray of sunshine that never failed to lift everyone's spirits. Even the very calm and stoic president Tohma looked as if he had aged 30 years overnight. 

Suguru missed bitching and fighting with their vocalist, and he was sorry for everyone involved. In order to cheer Hiro up, he invited him to a bar. There was nothing quite like getting wasted to help dull the pain of it all.

"Nakano, please don't be too sad. I understand your loss. I actually miss Shindo-san too." Suguru said as he signalled the bartender to pour them another glass of wine.

"Easier said than done." Hiro said as he smashed the glass onto the table. He grimaced as the corrosive liquid felt like fire as it went down. "Do you realize how many years have I known Shuichi? Ten years! I've known him since grade school! How could he just kill himself over that bastard? Why wouldn't he come and talk to me? I would have always been there for him " He lit another cigarette. His tenth that night.

"Yes, I understand. But let's not blame Eiri-san now; since he's already dead as well " Suguru drank his wine in one go, wiping his chin with his shirtsleeve.

Hiro caught someone next table pouring vodka onto the floor. Puzzled, he patted the man on his back, "whatcha doing? Don't ya go and waste perfectly good liquor on the floor come join us!"

The man turned around; it was Sakuma Ryuichi, the man that Shuichi loved and adored, before he ruined his life by having the misfortune of falling for somebody who would never love him. But he looked drunk and tired. He didn't look like the usually cheerful Ryuichi.

Ryuichi started crying once he saw Hiro. "Weii I don't understand it! Why'd Shuichi kill himself, Hiroshi-kun? He said we're gonna sing together again next month! You cheater, Shuichi! Come back and play with me, Shuichi!!! Kumagoro misses you too!" Ryuichi slurred.

"Hell yeah, Shuichi you suck! Why were you so weak? Why did you have to kill yourself?" Hiro started sobbing when he remembered how Shuichi bounced around because Bad Luck was going to perform with Ryuichi. Well, it would never happen now.

Suguru didn't know what to say to comfort his friends. So he poured Ryuichi a glass and urged him to drink with them. They all complied. Soon they were all far too gone to realize what they were doing or how much liquor they had consumed.

Ryuichi was the first one to collapse. He fell backward onto the floor, giggling, as he pulled a bottle of pills out of his pocket. "Wow, Kumagoro gave me sold me some happy candies. He said that they would help me forget about everything all the sad things in the world just by eating them have some too, you two let's fly away!

Popping several pills into his mouth, Ryuichi handed the rest to Hiro and Suguru. They obeyed, washing the pills down with liquor. The pills dissolved in the pool of the poisonous liquid that filled their stomachs, reacting with the chemical structure of the alcohol to create another type of poison, far more lethal than either of them would have been alone.

By the time the bartender recognized something was wrong with the three of them, it was too late to save their lives.

*~*~*

The death of Ryuichi, Hiro and Suguru due to drug overdose had shattered the little sanity Tohma had left in him. He had a stroke when he heard the news at the office.

Sitting beside a hospital bed, Mika looked after her husband Tohma with a pair of mournful eyes. She had already lost her brother; was she going to lose her husband - the father of their unborn child as well?

Shaking her hand, she banished the negative thought away from her head. She had to be strong. Tohma needed her, and she couldn't just give in now.

Sakano, K and Noriko had come to visit him in the hospital, but they didn't stay long because they had to go back to work immediately afterwards. Without its head and its most popular band members, N-G was on the edge of dismantling. K had to handle all the media questions and silenced anyone who dared to post negative news about the company. Sakano had stepped in for Tohma and became the temporary CEO of N-G. Noriko had to comfort the distressed staff and reassured them that everything was going to be all right. They were all understandably overworked and overstressed. 

Mika certainly could only count on herself.

After three days of unconsciousness, Tohma finally woke up. 

Mika ran towards his bed. Blinking back her tears, she whispered, "how are you feeling, Tohma?"

"I am still alive." 

"Yes. You are still alive."

Tohma started to shake uncontrollably. He reached his hand towards Mika's, only withdrawing it before touching her fingers. "It's my fault. It's all my fault. I shouldn't have told Eiri-san the news without giving him time to digest the information. I should have caught him when he fell. I should have been there for Suguru and Ryuichi-san when they needed me the most. It's my fault that they all died."

"No, it's not your fault. Don't blame yourself for everything. Please, Tohma, please don't do that." It was hard for Mika to stop her tears, but she managed to blink them back again.

Tohma didn't speak for a long time. They sat together in silence, occasionally interrupted by Mika's sniffing and Tohma's coughing. 

Mika could not stand the atmosphere anymore - she would lose control soon. Standing up, nearly knocking over the vase on the nightstand nearby, Mika gave Tohma a pained look, "you must be thirsty. Let me get you a glass of water. I'll be right back."

She started sobbing once she was out of the hospital room, out of Tohma's earshot. She could not bear looking at a pitiful Tohma. His skin was swollen and pale, and the blank void in his eyes were too familiar to her: he looked exactly like Eiri when the boy just returned from America. Only Eiri was gone now, along with Shuichi.

It took her half an hour to calm down. While at the kitchen getting Tohma's water, she splashed some water on her face, trying to regain her composure.

Carrying the glass of water back to the room, she was relived to find that Tohma was asleep again. His back was facing her, and he seemed to be sleeping peacefully.

Mika walked towards Tohma and called out his name, wanting to get him to drink some water before he rested for the night. Tohma didn't wake up.

Mika called again, louder and more urgently this time. "Tohma?"

No answer.

There was something terribly wrong. The room smelled of blood, Mika realized as she dropped the glass of water, nearly slipping as she ran towards her husband. She was shocked by the huge amount of blood on the white bed sheet - it was like several red flowers blooming in the background. Tohma had used the paring knife to cut vertical slits on both of his wrists.

Horrified, Mika let out a wounded cry and fell on the floor. 

*~*~*

Noriko didn't want to believe it when she heard about Tohma's suicide. It was a complete blow for her to learn that Mika had gone into premature labor at the shock of Tohma's death, and passed away from haemorrhaging too much from the violent birth. The foetus was only 20 weeks along. Much too tiny to be able to survive outside of his mother's womb, and he soon joined his mother. It seemed like some kind of hideous joke, Noriko thought. Everyone around her had suddenly died; she could not understand it. Her world had been turned upside that since Shuichi's death. What had gone wrong?

Her daughter Saki caught her crying alone in the sitting room one night.

"Mama, what's wrong?" Clutching her stuffed bear, she wiped away her mother's tears, "are you hurt anywhere? Aw, don't cry, Mama!" She started blowing air to her Noriko's eyes, "pain, go away! You don't hurt Mama anymore!"

Noriko pulled her young daughter into a tight embrace. "Saki, I'm okay. Really. I'm crying for your papa, that's all."

Saki blinked her eyes. "But Mama Papa is sleeping in your bedroom right now. What's wrong with him?"

Noriko put a finger onto her lips. "No, not him, Saki. I'm talking about your real father. The man I truly love, hon."

"Is that so, Noriko?" Noriko's husband, Tetsuya, suddenly spoke from the bedroom, starling the pair of them.

"Papa!" Saki ran towards him. Tetsuya pushed the child aside.

"Get away from me, bastard!" Tetsuya yelled. "I always knew that you're cheating on me, Noriko! Your daughter looked nothing like me. Tell me, whore, who's the real father of this child?"

Noriko's eyes widened in terror "Wait, Tetsuya, I can explain please listen to me please "

"Shut up! I asked you a question, bitch!"

Noriko bit her lips and said, "she was Ryuichi and my child it happened when we were drunk after a concert. But Tetsuya! I truly love you! Please don't question my character or my love for you."

Tetsuya's eyes turned icy as he glared at Noriko. "You've been fooling me for all these years, woman. Out! Don't let me see you and this child again!"

"No, Tetsuya, listen to me! Please!"

"My lawyers will contact you about the details of our divorce later. You have exactly three minutes to leave the house. After that I can't guarantee what I'm going to do to you."

Sobbing, Noriko knew her marriage was over. She picked the tiny little girl with Ryu-chan's eyes up in her arms and headed towards the door. Saki dropped her bear on the way out.

"Mama, I've dropped Teddy! Let me pick him up!"

"Saki dear, I'll buy you a new stuffed toy tomorrow." 

"Mommy, I don't wanna go! I don't wanna leave Papa!!!" Saki started to cry and whine as she began to realize the graveness of the situation. Noriko left the house as if she didn't hear her daughter's complaints. She crossed the road without looking both sides.

A truck honked, breaking the silence of the night. The pair of them were flung aside like paper dolls caught in a gust of wind when it hit them.

The sky started to rain, as if the heavens above were weeping, washing away the little girl and her mother's blood away 

*~*~*

Sakano was under a lot of stress. The work at N-G was becoming unbearable, and the death of his beloved boss had been devastating. He had started to talk as if Tohma was still alive. He'd always say "I have to work hard, or Sacho would never forgive me when he comes back." He would dust the CEO's room everyday himself, and polish the hardwood floor on his hands and knees, wanting to keep it spotless and clean as usual. K had been worried, but he was too tired to care about Sakano's mentality.

One week after Shuichi passed away, Sakano arrived at work with a big box. K assumed it was just another pile of files that he had to sign.

It did not contain files. It was a time bomb. Sakano had finally lost it, and he carried a bomb to N-G with him. He had wanted to join his beloved Tohma in death, and he was going to bring the empire that Tohma had worked so tirelessly to build to him as well. He was sure Tohma would love the special attention and care that he was getting.

*~*~*

By the time Tatsuha got to Tokyo, everything was over. The N-G building was no more, and hundreds of employees, along with ASK, had died during the apparent suicide bomb. 

He arranged for the burial of his family members all by himself, seeing his father was no longer able to handle them. Ayaka had helped with the formalities; she and Tatsuha comforted each other for their losses.

Tatsuha invited her to the graves with him a month later. Ayaka gladly complied.

They poured water over Ryuichi's grave and prayed.

"Ayaka, you know, I've been thinking you've lost your fiancé too, haven't you? Do you miss Nakano?"

"Yes, Tatsuha-san. I missed Hiro-san very much. It was a tragic accident."

"You should be glad that you got to know him before he died. I never even met Ryuichi face to face before." Tatsuha looked down and blushed. "I've lusted after him ever since I was eight, and I haven't even touched him once. I wonder how it would feel if I were to embrace him?" 

As if to test his words, Tatsuha embraced Ryuichi's tombstone, and rubbed his face against the cold limestone there.

Ayaka looked at her friend worriedly. "Are you okay, Tatsuha-san? Maybe you should sit down and rest. The sun is getting to your head now."

Tatsuha grinned at her; a strange gleam sparkled in his black eyes that were moist with tears. "Of course I'm all right! I have never been more okay, Ayaka." 

Smiling, he pulled out a dagger and stabbed Ayaka in the heart. Slowly collapsing onto the floor, Ayaka's last thought was why would Tatsuha kill her? What did she do to deserve this kind of end?

Licking the blood off the dagger, Tatsuha put Ayaka onto Ryuichi's tombstone. "Ryuichi, please accept the Miko sacrifice. I've killed for you - Buddha will not forgive you or me. We're both sinners. We're linked forever. Now nothing will separate the two of us. Nothing!"

"I'm coming for you, my Love. Wait for me!"

Tatsuha stabbed himself in his heart. His blood spilled onto the tombstone, deluding the words craved there with redness. 

May we all rest in peace.

The End


End file.
